On Wednesday, Roth tells us, IKEA began demolition for its store which is scheduled to open next fall. The same day, on the other side of the Missouri, Space Architecture and Design tweeted something quite intriguing: "Saying it out loud. IKEA is moving in at Vandeventer and Forest Park Parkway. Confirmed."

The St. Louis architecture studio eventually deleted that original tweet, but here's one follower's retweet of that comment and @SPACEarchitects' response that it is not connected to IKEA but is hearing some "real estate chatter" that "appears to be real":

@mayorslaycan you confirm this "@spacearchitects: Saying it out loud. IKEA is moving in at Vandeventer and Forest Park Parkway. Confirmed.

"We have nothing new to report," Roth says. "We are totally interested in the St. Louis market. We continue to evaluate opportunities there. But at this time, we still have not committed to a specific location, let alone a specific time frame for opening a store."

He notes that, for unexplainable reasons, these rumors often emerge when "we have a major milestone in Kansas City."

He says, "It seems like every time I have something going on in Kansas City, that's when the St. Louis rumors crop up."

Roth, who happens to be in Kansas City for the demolition launch this week, says that he received about four media inquiries about St. Louis on Wednesday and Thursday.

He says that IKEA likes to be "very slow [and] deliberative" in the process of choosing locations and is evaluating metropolitan areas across the country. "They are big investments," he says of new outlets. "Once we open a store, we tend to stay there."

But St. Louis has a shot, right?!

"We have many customers in the St. Louis area. We are very excited about any opportunities." But, he adds, "We are not committed to anything yet."